Take action against Libyan regime now

Right now, ordinary people in Libya are begging the United States for help and cursing us for standing idly by while they fight with the little means available to them to throw off Libya’s oppressive regime. I know firsthand what a dire situation this is.

During the conflict in former Yugoslavia, I joined a student group based at Stanford University to protest the atrocities and to deliver aid into Sarajevo. At the time, the United States was still dithering about doing anything, and the best it did in public was lift the arms embargo against Bosnia. It was scandalous how long it took the United States to help while thousands of Bosnians were being massacred in Srebrenica. And it was truly scandalous that the most concerted thing we could manage in the face of genocide was virtually nothing!

It is easy in the comfort of Washington to rationalize the inaction. But when you are on the ground, it is an altogether different and desperate thing to fight for your life and your human rights with nothing but straw in your grip.

Shall making a mockery of the United States and its ideals, which the people of Libya seek, and allowing the very same mistake as Bosnia to take shape again, be our legacy?